World Economic Forum honors Bay Area techies

Technology

The Bay Area flexed its innovation muscles Thursday, with local companies winning 12 of the 26 Technology Pioneer Awards handed out by the World Economic Forum.

The winners, which included Twitter, Obopay and Dilithium Networks, were recognized for their world-changing work across the fields of clean tech, health and information technologies, and new media.

When Playfish - a London social-gaming company with offices in San Francisco that was recently acquired by Electronic Arts - is added to the list, Bay Area companies make up nearly half of the award winners.

The World Economic Forum, a Switzerland-based nonprofit dedicated to economic development and social progress, has been giving out the awards since 2000. Last year, Bay Area firms captured five honors.

The awards are aimed at highlighting life-changing work that has the ability to benefit society and business.

"Entrepreneurship, innovation and technology have always played a key role in shaping and improving society. This proves to be even more the case during times of crisis, similar to the one the world faced this past year during the biggest recession in almost a century. New companies are already planting the seeds of recovery and the next wave of growth and progress," said André Schneider, managing director and chief operating officer of the World Economic Forum.

Past winners from the Bay Area have included Google, SanDisk, PayPal and Mozilla. This year's class of 2010 was a varied lot. Twitter of San Francisco was recognized for its microblogging site, while San Jose-based Corventis was picked for its innovative wireless cardiovascular monitoring technology. BioFuelBox of San Jose builds bio-refineries that recycle grease and wastewater sludge, converting it into premium clean-burning fuel.

Petaluma-based Dilithium Networks won the award for its work with a system that makes it easier to deliver video over 3G mobile networks.

"Our content adaptation solutions open up a new world of video content and delivery services that are being rapidly adopted by consumers around the globe," said Paul Zuber, CEO of Dilithium. "To be recognized by such a prestigious organization is a great honor for Dilithium."

Six of this year's winners are based in Massachusetts, including StreamBase and Boston-Power. Other companies honored were Epuramat of Luxembourg and Amiando of Germany.